Dark Angel
by coffee4eva
Summary: 907 is a experiement that was left behind when Max and everyone left. Now the School is using her to their advantage.
1. Chapter 1

I woke up the sound of the bars on my cage rattling. It was the same white coat from before.

Irritated, I rolled over, pulling the small blanket I had over my head as I did. He kept rattling the bars, but I ignored him, until he threatened to bring the cattle rod over.

At that I lifted my head from the plastic bottom of the cage, slowly unfurling my limbs from a fetal position, my bare feet sticking out the bars of the cage.

"What do you want now?", I growled, glaring at the goggled person.

"The director has requested that we bring you to Lab 2, 970." 970, my code, name, whatever you want to call it. He walked over to the opening of my cage and threw me a pair of metal handcuffs from his pocket. Then he stood there and waited.

I put the handcuffs on and showed them to him so he could check to make sure they were securely in place. After many injured white-coats and broken machinery, the dim-wits had finally made it standard procedure that I was to put a pair of handcuffs on in my cage before I was to be let out and brought to wherever I had to go. You would think that I wouldn't even bother and just stay in the cage.

Nope, that wouldn't work, I've tried it before and was given a week without food. Being a mutant, I had survived, but they had drug my starved and weak body out of the cage and made me endure the worst tests I had seen yet. From then on I decided to just do what they said.

The whitecoat checked and nodded in approval, taking a key out and opening the door to my cage. I climbed out and stretched. My joints popped, making the person next to me flinch. The cage had been changed to accommodate my growth over the 14 years I had been there, but it was still small for my size.

I walked with the whitecoat leading me along the many stacks of cages. I had gotten used to seeing human kids with different animal parts sewn on, melted on using radiation, or even burnt on. They rarely lasted longer than a few days so I had given up on trying to converse with them. I had been there longer than any living mutant, all the others had been put to use, or had escaped, leaving me behind and doomed to stay with the evil scientists. We exited the stockroom, slash room for the results of experiments, and made a right into a hallway filled doors that were furnished with windows that let the scientists look into the rooms. We walked the other rooms and went down the numbers till we reached the second to last door.

He unlocked it and I went in voluntarily, I could be cocky all I wanted, in the end they would still win as long as I was in this damned School. There was a small chair in the middle of the room, straps went along the arms and chairs, much different from my usual equipment. I was used to exercise machines, removable walls, things used to test my endurance, speed, thinking, and strength. This was just a chair in the middle of the room, nothing very special.

"Please sit down 970, we're ready to begin the operation", the white coat ordered from behind. I swung around. OPERATION! What operation, not another experiment like the other kids in the storage area. I backed up until my shoulders hit a wall. The whitecoat in charge of me tutted. Two of those Eraser-bots had came up from behind him in case I decided to make a run for it.

"Do you always have to put up a fight?", he asked shaking his head, and reached into a closet in the room, and pulled out a tranquilizer gun. I growled, baring my teeth. There was no way they were messing me up more than I already was. He aimed at me and I dodged, pulling my wings out. Deep black, almost glistening, and leathery,they made their appearance with a loud whoosh.

Over 2% of my DNA was built with bat genes into it. They had been crafted it into me as a baby and I'd mutated into this. I felt my two canines elongate and my pupils narrow, my ears grew pointed and pulled back in my snarl. Long claws had grown from my nails and turned black, I slashed at my enemy as he fired at me. Dodging them I made sure my wings kept out of the way, the Eraser-bots were trying to grab them, but I kept slipping away. Until my luck ran out.

I felt a sharp pain in my thigh and something was shot into my system as I went down. The two Erasers grabbed both of my wings and pushed them down to the floor, forcing me down with them and pinning me as the drug started to work. They waited until I was nearly unconscious before pulling me up and shoving me into the chair, using the straps to keep me down. Steve signaled the two Erasers to leave and a person with a medical cart came in. I tried to stay awake to see what they would do. The chart had medical equipment on it, scalpels, pincers, a cardio machine with electrodes, and different pieces of metal on it. Two scientists came in as the other whitecoat picked up a syringe filled with a clear liquid.

He put the needle in my hand and I clenched my eyes shut as he pushed it in.

"Don't want you waking up in the middle of the operation, now do we?", he smiled as the drug caused the darkness that I had pushed to the recesses of my mind, finally overflow and cause me to lose consciousness.

I went in and out of the drugged sleep. I caught different parts of things that were happening. I was on an operating table once, another time I had a sharp pain in the back of my head. Finally the drugs effects wore off and I was able to wake up. I was back in my cage and sat up suddenly, taking a rain check on all my body parts. Everything was where it should be and there weren't any additions. Except the fact that my neck was sore. I reached back to rub it and felt something under my skin. I scratched at it with my nails, annoyed.

_"I wouldn't do that unless you want to be shocked."_, a female's voice resonated within my mind. I froze in shock, now I was hearing voices?

_"No, I am the director, the 'metal box' you felt was a transmitter, it helps me make sure you're not in trouble or being trouble. Up until now you have been staying the School for simple research, now I want to use you to your full potential."_, the voice was the Director? I had never met her, but from the stories I'd heard I would have loved to. Just to tear her head and limbs off of course.

The box in my neck beeped and I was shocked. I fell back into my pillow as painful shoots of electricity went up and down my body. It stopped after a few long seconds and I prepared to tear the thing out, there was no way I was letting this thing stay inside of me. I started scratching fiercely at the flesh on my neck, willing myself to pull the metal device out.

_"I wouldn't do that, it's attached to your brain stem, which means that if it comes out, you will die."_, the Director was cheerful as she said this, _"That was a punishment session, I have a control in my hands and a screen in front of me that lets me know what you're thinking, seeing, hearing, all of your sense are at my control. Now back to the mission I have for you, would you like to take it, or do I have to let my scientists experiment on you like the children around you? It would be a pity, after all you, are a very expensive project."_

'Are you kidding me, you're making me pick between doing an errand and dying?', I mentally shouted at her. I was at least going to hear the mission before I picked anything. I told her my deal and she was silent, most likely thinking of a way to make me choose in her favor.

_"Alright, I would like you to infiltrate a enemy group and gather information for us." _That was the only information she would give me. I decided to take her up on the deal, it was better than being dead.

_"Excellent, we will release you later today, your target will be Maximum Ride"_, she announced after I grudgingly accepted.


	2. Chapter 2

_"Maximum Ride"_, the name remained stuck in my head. She had been one of the avians that had escaped. Her and a few others had escaped from the School with one of the whitecoats, Jeb Batchelder. He'd been in charge of the avian experiments, unfortunetely I had been assigned a different whitecoat, otherwise I might have been out of here already.

She'd been the leader of the avian experiments even then, trying to heal or help the younger ones. Of course, I was in with the other chiropterians(bats). None of them lasted very long. They'd gone through the many species of bats, only to find that the _desmodus rotundus _was the most effected by the DNA mutations. Desmodus rotundus is the common vampire bat, and was the most related to human species, making me the most probable to not die. At least I had enough human in me to be able to have a normal appetite without being malnourished. I shook my head, years of science and small snippets of the scientist's writing on a clipboard were running through my mind, and I really didn't need to go through it if I was being released somewhere. As soon as I was out, I had to focus on the plan and forget everything that happened here.

A whitecoat came into the room and walked up to the cage. He studied me, looking to see if I had survived the operation.

"Subject is conscious and ready for disposal at the location", he spoke into a device that was on is ear.

"Where exactly am I going?", I asked him futiley. He simply ignored me, walking out of the room, and two Erasers replaced him. They threw me the handcuffs and I went through the procedure of putting them on. They checked them and I climbed out of the cage and walked beside them. No words were passed between us as we went.

They lead me into a room filled with helicopters and an assortment of vehicles. I stared as we passed a few Hummers and one very royale Viper. We stopped in front of a small helicopter. Black, stream-lined, and extremely small and light-weight, the thing was made for speed. Which brought the question of where I was going back.

_"They're bringing you to a location a few miles off of the Flock."_, the Director's voice came back into my mind, _"You're to find them and hopefully integrate into their group."_

She was making them sound like an occult. From what I'd seen from them, granted it was years ago, they were just a bunch of feather-brained kids who got out of a bad situation. 'Lucky' feather-brained kids, I corrected myself.

_"That was before they started to mutate"_, the Erasers pushed me into the tiny air-craft as the Director continued to inform me, _"The small one has grown the ability of telepathy and even mind-control. The blind-one seems to have a vast knowledge of technology and his senses have expanded after our failed experiment. The older male hasn't changed at all, though he seems to be the strongest, right next to Maximum. She also hasn't changed, and neither has the second-youngest female. The youngest male has been known to mimic noises, and have drastic bowel movements"_, I had to hold in a giggle at that. Their faces flew through my mind, the youngest one of them, a girl, had been a baby when they left.

_"We've done some research and found out that you might mutate too. You-"_, I cut her off. Mutate? I already had bat body parts, what more could mutate? I laughed weakly, causing the Erasers to look at me.

_"As I was saying, you might become blind, and develop echolocation, just like a regular bat."_ I had to keep in a groan. My vision gone? These whitecoats didn't hold back when it came to destroying a teenage girl's life.

_"No need for that much sarcasm, the possibility of this happening is extremely low."_, she scolded me sternly. She continued to tell me about the Flock: who was in charge, where their exact location was, and what to look out for. I had half a mind to tell her to shut it, but I remembered my shocking and keep my own mouth shut. Slowly though, her voice faded into the background, almost disappearing completely. I was looking out of a window, watching the scenery go by. We were over a forest, with a large canyon rapidly approaching. I leaned my head against the window, and tried to fall alseep.

Hours went by, and I must have dozed off, because all of a sudden I had a backpack flying at my face. Reflexes made me catch it, and I glared at the Eraser who'd thrown it. He ignored my look and told me that I was going to jump soon.

I looked through the backpack and found some clothes, normal ones compared to my orange jump-suit, a jack-knife, shoes, water, and some dehydrated food. I looked at my reflection in one of the windows and flinched. They had bathrooms at the School, but no mirrors in them, if you were an experiment then why should you worry about what you looked like? I was in need of a hair cut, long curly, dark brown hair hung as a frame around my face. Dark hazel eyes stared sleepily back at me, and a scowling mouth cheered me slightly. At least my expression showed my emotions of the moment.

I strapped on the back pack, and as soon as I was done attaching it to my waist, the head-Eraser told me it was time to jump. I gulped, I'd only flown at the training grounds at the school, and now I was jumping out a helicopter a few thousand miles from the ground. Yikes! I walked slowly to the door and he opened it, causing a gust of hot air to wash over me. We were definetly in the southern region of the United States, and it must have been summer. I looked at the ground below us and saw that we were now over the canyon, a few rivers and plains decorated the interior of the giant hole in the Earth.

The Eraser gave me the signal to jump and I leapt out of the helicopter.

The feeling of my stomach up in my throat immediatly happened, and it thrilled me. I was free, it took a few seconds to sink in, but I finally felt free. The helicopter was a few miles above me, the distance growing by the minute. The only remainder, besides the box in my neck, of the School was almost out of my sight. And I was still falling.

The fact was brought to my attention and I held out for a few more hundred feet, until I was about 500 feet off the ground, before I let my wings slide out of my back. They snapped open and I shot forward. Doing a few loop-de-loops and twists in the air, I looked back and saw nothing. Now the helicopter was nowhere to be seen. I whooped loudly. The feeling of the hot air over and under my wings was making happiness radiate off me. I felt like a canary out of the cage.

The only problem was my hair, it kept flying into my face, tangling in my mouth and eyes. I pushed it behind my ears, I was going to have to cut it when I grounded again.

_"907! Get your mind out of the clouds!"_, the directors voice was back in my head, _"You're going too much to the west, the Flock is about five miles north of here."_, I grudgingly obeyed and turned my left wing in slightly and went north. She was stealing my moment of happiness from me, and it was pissing me off. I felt a small shock go through me, and surprisingly I stayed in the air, stiffly, but still air-born. My limbs were ridged, and my wings were barely able to move, but I stayed in the air. I rode it out until the director spoke again.

_"Remember our deal, it's either this, or I can get the helicopter to come back and shoot you out of the sky, which is your choice?"_, I stayed silent, ignoring her, yet obeying her words at the same time. I felt her smugness through the box, and I swallowed my come-backs. This was going to be a long mission.

I kept flying until we were about a half-mile away. In fact, I could see them flying with a bunch of hawks. No wait! It looked like they were landing in one of the caves. More like crashing into them, they looked exhausted.

_"We had one of them in custody, in fact all of them in our hands, but they broke out around twenty-four hours ago, which is why the descision was made for you to become a part of their flock."_ To think that the School couldn't handle a few birds was funny.

_"We thought we had them, but they proved to be to witty for us, but now we have a new way of infiltrating them."_ I hated it, but she praised me like a good-child. It made my insides turn, but once again I stayed quiet. I was beginnig to feel like a mime.

I got closer to the Flock and the directors voice disappeared altogther. She'd told me that the small female could read minds, meaning she would instantly tell that the director was telling me orders if the director had the communicator box on. I studied them, now they were all laying down, after having what looked like a family-meltdown. The light-brown haired girl must have been Max. She was dressed in a purple wind-breaker, with a pair of dirty jeans, and right now she had the small, blonde girl in her lap. A dark-skinned girl, with chocolate colored hair was lying close by, her age looked to be in the middle of the other two girls. A blonde boy, about the age of the blonde girl, was lying on the other side of Max, not exactly snuggling, but still very close. The other two boys were sprawlng out on the other sides of the cave. The dark haired one was still awake and tending the fire that they had built, while the strawberry blonde haired boy was talking to him. I strained my ears, but I couldn't hear a thing they were saying. So much for developing echolocation! I watched them for another few hours, the sun had started to set when I had landed in my spot, and it was now night, with a bright moon over head. I could still see everything, it was almost like the sun had just put a shade on. The temperature fell along with the sun, and soon I was curling into myself to preserve warmth.

After watching them go to sleep, I decided to take a shut-eye myself, after going through an entire make-over.

I pulled on the clothes the Erasers had given me, a tight-fitting black hoodie, some dark jeans, and the brown hiking shoes. I threw my orange jump-suit in to the river, where it proceded to sink to the sandy bottom. I could somewhat make out my appearence in the water. I pulled out the jack-knife I'd put in my pocket and started to cut my hair away. I cut it short on all the sides and the back, and left long bangs in the front. I didn't know what a normal girl's hair-cut would be, but it was good-enough for now.

I was walking back to my spot, when the dark-haired boy decided to look my way. I dunked, and watched as his eyes passed over me, and landed on the fire in front of him. I breathed a held-in breath, I wanted to introduce myself on my own terms, not be found by them.

The spot where I landed was in a wooded part of the cliff, and where they had landed was void of any vegetation, though it had a few caves. I could watch them, and they couldn't even see me.

I walked back to my spot and l layed down on the ground. It was surprisingly warm to the chilly air above it. I watched as the dark-haired boy fell asleep, and only then did I let myself give in to my tired mind and fall asleep. I had a dreamless sleep until I was awoken by a loud shout.


	3. Chapter 3

**Seriously people, please R and R! I need to know if I'm doing something stupid or idiotic! Without your reviews, I'm nothing. . .**

"Hey! There's someone over here", a small voice shouted, it sounded a few feet from me. My eyes snapped open and looked over to the source of the yell. The youngest boy was standing in between the two trees I had hid behind the previous night, his blond hair standing straight up, and he was looking at me with cautious eyes. I looked behind him and saw that the Flock's attention had been brought to him by his yell. Now they were looking at each other, probably debating on whether or not to come and see what he was yelling about.

I looked back at him and he stepped towards me a little. I was on my feet in an instant. His eyes widened and he opened his mouth for another yell. I panicked and held up my hands to stop him, pleading him not to yell. He backed up, his mouth ready to yell, and I waited for him to alert the rest of the Flock to my presence.

"Who are you?", he asked in a small voice. I backed up even more, putting us at separate ends of the clearing. I looked him over and saw that he was around five and a half feet tall, though his face made me think he was around nine. Clear blue eyes were looking me over too, and judging by my appearance, he was going to think I was a hobo or something.

"907", I answered. His face twisted in a frown.

"That's not a name", he told me, "Like mine's Gasman, but everyone calls me Gazzy. What's your name?". I shook my head, I didn't have one.

"I don't have one, I was always 907", I replied. He cocked his head, but left the subject where it was. Instead he changed to a new topic.

"What are you doing here?", he questioned me. I held a battle in my head over that one. Should I tell him what I wanted? Would he believe me? Then again, I could just show him my wings. But how would the rest of them take it?

In the end, I just decided to go with it, and accept failure if it didn't work.

"I want to join the Flock, if that's alright with you guys", I waited his response. His eye-brows flew to his hairline at that as he digested my request.

"I think you're going to have to talk to Max if you want to do that", he told me. I nodded and stepped towards him in an attempt to get him going. He saw where I was going and ran ahead to lead me.

"You do know that we're mutants right?", he looked behind at me. I nodded.

"I know, I'm a mutant too", I smiled. He once again wore a look of surprise as he walked along. He slid out his wings, and I my grin faded in amazement. Back in the old days, he had little chicken-like wings from what I had seen. Now those wings had a good nine foot wing-span, white with brown speckles running down the middle of them. He looked back at me.

"Could you maybe show me your thing, I don't think Max would like it if I showed the Flock to a regular human", he told me with a air of superiority, like he was proud of the fact that he had bird-wings. I smirked at him and let my own feather-less wings come out of the slits in my hoodie. While his own wing-span was impressive, mine was a little larger, being around fourteen feet wide. I stretched them to their length and reveled in his amazement.

"Wow", he breathed, his voice barely a whisper.

"Is this mutant enough for ya?", I asked, still smirking. He nodded with a smile breaking out on his features.

"I think you can join, you have my vote anyway", he smiled at me and we made our way back, tucking our wings back in so we wouldn't hit them on the trees. As we approached them, they looked up and saw me. I saw the two older boys go in front of the two younger girls. Max herself walked forward to meet us.

"Who's this Gazzy?", she asked, her voice business-like. He frowned as the problem of my name came back into his mind.

"Um, she said that her name was 907", he said, his voice a little confused. He looked back to me for help and I shrugged.

"And what does she want?", Max asked looking me up and down.

"She wants to join us", he told her, cautiously. Max's eyes widened and she looked me over again.

"Why would you want to do that?", she asked me directly, forgetting Gazzy was even there, "You do realize that we have people chasing us right?". I nodded.

"I know, I have Erasers chasing me too", all of their eyes widened at the mention of the Erasers. The white one walked up to side with Max.

"You mean, you've been in the School too?", he demanded, I saw that his eyes weren't looking at me directly. He must have been the blind one.

"Yeah, and you could say that it wasn't a paradise", I muttered, I was playing a poker game, and my face showed no emotion as I said this. The little blond girl came up from behind the dark guy.

"She's telling the truth", she told Max in a little voice, "She was at the School with us, she remembers us when I was still a baby". Wow, the director wasn't kidding when she said that the little one could read minds. I covered my thought and the little girl looked at me strangely. Max must not have seen, but she looked at me sharply.

"And what part of the experiments were you?", she asked, challenging me to answer her.

"The chiropterian one, the unsuccessful one", I said softly. She froze.

"Impossible, none of them lived beyond a few weeks", she said, a final note in her voice. I shook my head.

"Most of them did die, except me", I smiled, "I was lucky enough to have the most human related genes put into me, and I've been able to live for fourteen years in that hell-hole". I grimaced at all the experiments, and long hours of just running through the mazes and on the cardio machines, nearly till I fell over from exhaustion, that I'd gone through.

Max's eyes were angry, apparently she didn't want me to join and she threw one last challenge at me, "Prove it", she told me.

I smirked, like I had with Gazzy. He looked at me with a smile at Max's order. I took a deep breath and showed them my wings. I stretched them like before, except now I had the dark-skinned girl coming toward me with her hand out to touch them. I twitched slightly, I didn't like people touching them, but I still let her come closer.

"Wow, they're so cool", she whispered, and she slowly stroked my left wing. Her touch tickled at little and I fought to keep still. The others watched her and waited for her to give her response.

"They're real alright", she smiled back at them, "And really warm, almost like skin, but tougher, and there are little bones coming out at the edge". She was touching the small piece of bone that came out at the edges of the skin. They were like the ends of fingers, but instead of finger nails, they were bones. And at the top corner there was practically a saber attached to it, it was the bone that attached my wings to my spine. The girl backed up again, but she was rubbing her fingers.

Max looked me over again and stepped toward me until she was in my face. We were about the same height, so she could hardly scare me, but I stood still as she ranted at me.

"I'm going to let them decide, but remember, if you even think of betraying us, I'm not afraid to rip off those things you call wings alright", she looked for my response, and I nodded in acknowledgement. She looked back at the Flock and waited their vote.

Gazzy came first, "I vote she stays", Max looked at him like she couldn't believe him. But he stood steady and left his vote stand unaffected.

The dark-skinned one came next, "I go with Gazzy, she stays", she announced proudly. I smiled at both of them. The little blond girl was the next one in line.

"I think she's telling the truth and should stay with us", she smiled sweetly at me. My grin grew, it was working, they were letting me in!

Next was the almost white-haired guy, "I don't really know you, but if you're from the School, you have my vote to stay". I nodded in thanks, though he didn't see me.

Finally the dark-haired one came up, he smirked at me, "I thought I saw something last night", he waited for me to respond. I smiled sheepishly.

"Yeah that was me, I was just watching you guys", I shrugged. His smile faded.  
"I'm going with both sides, she can stay, just watch yourself", he warned me, and I nodded again, getting the message. Then we all turned to Max for her take on the problem.

She sighed, "Fine, the Flock wants you, so you can stay for now", she told me. I found myself being hugged by three little people. I raised my wings up so I didn't club them in the head. Gazzy, the blond girl, and the dark-skinned one was hugging me like a family member. I waited for them to detach themselves, feeling a little weird as they did.

"Now we can introduce ourselves, I'm Nudge", the dark-skinned girl announced, "She's Angel", she pointed to the little blonde girl, and it was a perfect name for her in my mind, "He's Gazzy", he smiled at me, "He's Iggy, "the white-haired dude lifted a finger in a 'hey', "He's Fang", the dark-haired guy ignored her and went on doing whatever he was doing, "and she's Max", she pointed to her and Max raised her eyebrows sarcastically.

Then she turned to me, "What did you say your name is?". I frowned, here it was again, were names really that important?

"907", I said lowly. Nudge frowned. The other little ones frowned along with her.

"We have to give you a better name than that", I looked over at the other older ones for a rain-check to see if this was normal. Max just waved for me to go along with it.

"How about Eliza?", she asked, her face beaming. I cringed, Eliza sounded like a jungle somewhere. Angel pulled her away.

"I don't think she likes that", she smiled back at me and I thanked her in my mind.

Max's POV

I didn't like the look of this girl. She was tall like me, Iggy, and Fang, with dark hair that was short in a boys cut. She was as skinny as us, but seemed to have more muscle in her arms and legs. And her wings were cool too, they looked like Fang's just made out of leather instead of feathers. But there was something about her that I didn't like.

She was too quiet, and looked like she had a trouble that she was dealing with. Then again, she was from the School, she could have had serious trauma. And what high-pedestal was I on to tell her that she couldn't join. After all, where else was she going to go?

Besides the others seemed to like her. Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge were trying to figure out a name for her, 907 must have been the experiemnt number the white-coats had given her. Fang and Iggy were watching the scene, laying down next to me. We had to get to New York from what Angel had said about our files from the School. We were trying to find an Institute of some kind. Maybe this girl could help us along the way.

Now they still hadn't figured out a name for her, and one popped into my head.

"How about Onyx, for the color of your wings?", I asked her. Her eyes were a dark hazel I could see and they looked like they needed a few nights of sleep to make up for her tiredness. But they brightened at the name I offered.

"I like it", she smiled. The little kids looked up at me and smiled also at me solving the problem. I had enough trouble dealing with six other people in the Flock, did I have enough mental capacity to deal with another person? I guess I was going to have to try it.


	4. Chapter 4

Onyx. I liked it. It fit me perfectly. From what I'd learned during the research time at the School, onyx was a rare stone, black and usually used in jewelry. Perfect for me, a rare person, who was used for someone else's liking. To my immense pleasure, the director hadn't made a visit in my mind since I'd joined the group, though I could tell that she was documenting the whole thing. I'd been hiding my thoughts from Angel, covering them with false worries about the Flock liking me. To my surprise, I'd begun to like the little blond girl. She'd read my thoughts when the group were talking about their plans and put in my wants under her own, making me have a say. Plus she had the habit of giving me hugs and sitting next to me during out meal.

After eating a quick breakfast, the Flock clued me in on what exactly they were doing. Apparently, Angel had gotten information on their parents, and they had wanted to get to the Institute in a place called New York, to do some investigating. I thought they were nuts for wanting to even get involved with the School again, but I went along with it. I didn't want to know anything about me, let alone whose DNA I had been crafted from. Max had continually made snappy remarks to me, and they were starting to get on my nerves.

I understood that I was the outsider here, but Max seemed to make-sure that I knew that fact every minute I was with them.

I couldn't believe how quickly they had let me in though, it took like maybe two hours to completely win them over. Fang had been making side-ways glances at me. I could tell that he was the big-protector of them, and despite having his vote, I knew he wouldn't hesitate to kick me out if I made a wrong move.

After breakfast we packed up. The boys put out the fire, while the girls picked up the various wrappers and put them under a rock or two. I had brought over my back-pack and distributed the food I had. I didn't need it anyway, I'd learned to live off the land. It was all due to a self-survival experiment they'd made me undergo at the school. I'd learned what plants to eat, how to make a bed, and they'd even brought in a deer for me to kill and butcher. I'd done it to my displeasure, but it had just made my hate for the white-coats increase.

Finally everyone was saying goodbye to the hawks that were neighboring us, apparently they'd watched them and learned a few moves. Then Max turned to me after saying her farewells.

"You ready to go Bat-girl?", she asked, her voice filled with malice. I opened my mouth to say yes, I'd chosen to just put up with her, though she was starting to go a bit far. Bat-girl? I could be calling her Bird-Brains, but I bit my tongue. Thankfully Iggy came to my defense finally.

"Seriously Max, dim down on the insults, I would've taken a swing by now if I was her", he said exasperatedly, pulling a back-pack on. He was weird that Iggy. He was definetely blind, not meeting peoples eyes when he spoke to them, but he seemed to be able to manuver around the campsite without even stubbing his toe. His sense must really have been over-developed.

Max glowered at him, but nodded in an understanding. I told her I was ready, slining my own back-pack over my shoulder. I stood there and waited for someone to jump into the air, until I looked around at them. No one had moved and all eyes were on me, making me nervous.

"We want to see you take off", Angel told me, her childish face smiling innocently. My eyes widened, talk about being in the spot-light. But I couldn't argue with them and I braced myself before taking off. If they were going to watch then I might as well make it interesting by jumping off the edge of the cliff. I took a deep breath and sprinted to the cut-off and leaping into the air, pushing my toes off the edge of a rock.

I did a swimmer's dive, my hands pointed in front of me, aiming down, before I let my wing slide out and catching the air. I laughed as I went up and over them. They were looking up at me in surprise, except Angel and Izzy who were just grinning.

"Come on slow-pokes, what are you waiting for, the air's perfect", I shouted to them, laughing as I did a loop-de-loop in front of them as a show. The little kids grinned and took off, their feathers spreading out, unlike my leathery ones, which made me wonder how it felt to have those small things that were attached to them, moving in the air. Was it painful? The older ones took off, and I even saw Max grinning a little.

Max's POV

She was a natural, just like us. It made me envious how easy she moved through the air, it made me feel like she was in on a secret that only me and the Flock knew. The secret was how wonderful it felt to fly. The little ones took off after she had laughed at us standing there looking at her in awe.

Even I was impressed, she looked like an angel of death with those bat wings and dark clothing. It made me look over at Fang and see that he was also looking at her with wide eyes. I felt a jealous pang go through me, but I pushed it away and I leapt into the air, Iggy following me and Fang close behind. She was currently doing spins and nose-dives. I got her attention and pointed the way we were going. She nodded, grinning, making a small smile on my face form. It was hard to not smile as I looked at the happy faces of the people around me. The entire Flock was happy with Onyx flying with us, the bat in a bunch of birds.

Throughout the flight we were laughing at some jokes that Gazzy and Iggy started telling us, Onyx would look at them and crinkle her eyes in a way of laughing. I could tell that she was holding back how fast she could fly, while we had feathers and were stable in the air, her wings sliced through the air, jerkily and swiftly. Just then she looked back at us and asked a question that was profanity in our minds.

"What ever happened to that scientist that helped you guys escape?", she questioned, loud enough to go over the sound of the wind. I saw the rest of us tense and I was the first to speak.

"He went back to the School and actually talked to us about rejoining the place", I grimaced at her, "He's a traitor, and no offense but it's a touchy subject". She shrugged holding up her hands.

"Sorry, I'll keep that for future reference", she said. It was then that it happened, a pop and I was thrown into a headache of the millennium, my skull was being crack in two, I felt myself start to fall and suddenly I was in someone's arms, Fang's. Another wave went through me, blindingly painful and I clutched onto Fang in an attempt to stop from screaming.

Onyx's POV

I watched as Max fell and Fang caught her. She was clutching her head and her body was rigid in pain. I flew closer to see what was wrong when I felt the shocker in my neck go off. I stopped in midair and started to fall as the shocks went through me. My wings were wrapped around me as I dropped like a dead weight.

"Damn it! Iggy! Gazzy! Catch her while I take Max to the ground!", I heard what sounded like a panicked Fang's voice. I felt four sets of hands on my back and my legs and I wasn't falling anymore, I was floating down slowly. The shocker was still going on and I wondered if this had something to do with Max, but that thought was quickly driven from my head as the shocks increased, making any mental workings unable to happen.

_"Hello Onyx"_, a voice went through my head, much like the director's, but this was sexless, I couldn't even tell if it was young or old. It was confusing to think about it while I was in so much pain but I asked it what it was.

_"Think of me as your's and Max's conscience"_, the voice said clearly and I felt surprised at Max's name, why just her and me not the other's?

_"Because you two were designed to save the world"_, it answered, causing even more surprise to shock me. I suddenly felt relief as the shocks stopped, yet I could still feel the voice. Saving the world?

_"Don't think of that now, just know that the director can't message you while I'm here. I know you can't tell the Flock about the communicator, but try to stop her from getting information about them, you and they are the key to saving the world, without you we're doomed"_,suddenly the voice was gone, leaving me exhausted and looking now and seeing Iggy and Gazzy above me. I realized that I was on the ground with Max next to me. I hadn't even felt me touch the ground. I lifted my head and saw Max looking at me and me at her.

"Did you hear something?", I asked her, my voice steady despite my shaken mind. She nodded, swallowing hard before trying to get up. This was a weird day and it was still going on.


End file.
